Reading and writing

After reading “Incident,” “This Be the Verse,” and “My Mother,” please answer the following questions:

Regarding “Incident,”: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/42618/incident-56d2213a45f36

1. The “incident” in the poem is discussed casually and uneventfully. Why might the author have chosen this strategy?

2. What does the young narrator learn from this incident? 

Regarding “This Be the Verse,” : https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/48419/this-be-the-verse

1. This poem contains one of the most infamous first lines of all English-language poetry. What tone does this line establish and how so? How does the rest of the poem either maintain or complicate that tone? 

2. To what extent is and/or isn’t the poem’s first line an adequate statement of its theme?

Regarding “My Mother,”:https://www.jhwriter.com/robert-mezeys-my-mother/

1. Near the beginning of the poem, the mother encourages her son to be a “mensch” (a person of noble character and integrity) and says that he turned out “very well.” How does the rest of the poem contradict these statements? 

2. Does the poem reveal more about the mother or the son? Explain your answer.